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Final Result of the Debate, The American electionsIntroduction

The American elections are known as a two-horse race between the Republican and the Democrats. In 2012 election, the flag bearers of the aforementioned parties were Mitt Romney, a republican presidential nominee while president obama led the Democrat.

Romney comes from a prominent political family, given his father, George, was 43rd governor of Michigan and an automotive executive. Among the higher learning institution he went through are the Stanford University, Brigham Young University and eventually graduated from Harvard University with an M.B.A/J.D. He headed a spin-off equity firm at Bain & Company. In 1994, he contested for Massachusetts senate seat unsuccessful; however, he became the governor for Massachusetts from 2003-2007. He also made an unsuccessful bid for republican presidential nomination in 2008.

On Obama side, he made history in 2008 as the first black president to have ever headed a powerful nation in the planet, and the 44th president of U.S. His father was a Kenyan and his mother was an American. Obama studied at Punahou Academy where he did well in basketball and graduated with academic honors in 1979. Other tertiary schools he went through include Occidental College in Los Angeles, Colombia University where he got a degree in political science. Before pursuing politics; he served as civil rights lawyer, a writer and teacher. He was first elected as the senator for Illinois in 1996-2004, and in 2012, he got re-elected against his challenger Romney.

Thesis

Obama narrowly clinched the presidential ticket against his rival, Mitt Romney, to serve for another four year term.

The candidates spent over $2 billion in their campaigns; hence, they were to spent more time in fundraisers.

Despite exchanging hash words, both competitors promised to work together in healing the US economy.

Both candidates held conflicting views and policies, and even their campaign trains were totally dissimilar. Romney was disapproved by election results as he was confident of winning.

Campaign Budget

The American constitution requires presidential candidates to register their campaign spending reports with the Federal Election Commission on a monthly basis. Here, is how the presidential hopefuls massed up the cash chase.

The two presidential candidates spent a combined $30.33 per second in their election circle, as a spree of campaign spending flooded voters with banners, TV Ads, and rallies. By the mid October 2012, both parties had spent approximately $1.7 billion. This means that more than $2.6 million were spent on a daily basis and more than $79 million per month. Hence, it was not a surprise to observe them spent much of their time in fundraisers (Javers & Joseph, n.p).

Since January 2011 to November 2012, the Obama campaign had spent more than $553.2 million, plus another $262.2 million spent by the Democratic National Committee. In addition to this, the top “Super PACs” cashed in additional $58 million, bringing the totals to over $874.6 million burned before election (Javers & Joseph, n.p).

On the other hand, Romney campaign spent $360.4 million within the same period, in addition to $284.2, and $200.1 million contributed by the Republican National Committee and the top three Romney Super PACs respectively. This brought the figures to over $844.6 million in total. The Romey team had approximately $30 million less than the Obama team.

The force behind president Obama’s success spent about $5.98 per registered voter. The result was calculated by dividing the total amount by the total registered voters in the last campaign, which was over 146.3 million. Romney’s team, on the other hand, spent approximately $5.77 per voter. Hence, if combined, that is around $11.75 per voter (Javers & Joseph, n.p).

Some top contributors for Obama campaign team include University of California, Microsoft Corp, Google Inc, Us Government, and Harvard University. On Romney side, we have Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase & Co, and Credit Suisse Group.

The Campaign Structures

Obama campaign team used an online organizing tool, aimed to incite the volunteer enthusiasm that saw him won the white house contest four years ago. The program, called Dashboard was built off technology, and to imitate a campaign field office. It facilitated volunteers to organize events, perform phone banking and even chat with campaign leaders from their Smartphones or laptops. This was latest mechanism of democrats, betting to clinch victory after the internet was acknowledged with assisting accelerate Obama in 2008. The Dashboard outlook borrowed some feature from Facebook’s blue-and-white layout. On the left, volunteers would view recent activities such as profile updates from people, and from the home page, users would see phone numbers of those intending-to-be voters (Allen, n.p). The staff also used the program to systemize and track volunteers’ advancement. There were many movements such as Women for Obama, Obama for America; therefore, the Dashboard aimed at feeding supporters with information concerning local efforts and let volunteers view how their efforts were compared with those of others.

On Romney side, the campaign team embarked on television advertising, a known stronger way to entice wavering voters. They also developed another method on Facebook called GOP Social Victory Center. It was meant to systematize supporters in the virtual world. In a nutshell, Romney’s campaign team focused less on other technology spending other than advertising companies and telemarketers (Allen, n.p). Top executives in the Romney campaign only considered their own base by inviting their own firms and those of acquaintances to provide vital services. The Romney campaign totally left majority of its technology fate to willing outsiders to fix them.

Their Actions During and After Election result

During the campaigns, the two presidential candidates exchanged bitter words. Interestingly, both candidates were armed with figures, numbers, percentage and statistics, to strengthen their arguments and attacks. Romney accused the president’s inability to confront a sluggish economy (unemployment) while the president retaliated by citing over two years of positive employment growth. Issues that dominated their speech include unemployment rate, Medicare, taxation system, cutting deficit, foreign policies, war on terror particularly Afghanistan, among others. This made Romney amass more confidence on winning the ticket, more so after the first debate. His team believed that republican will sweep their man to victory coming 6th November election. Also their speeches were in a way to distinguish them from one another, particularly when they visited swing states such as Ohio and Lowa (“Mack”McLarty, p1).

After winning, president Obama called for unity and set out confident vision of America’s future. He even broke in to tears as he gave out a speech. The Obama campaign team had projected victory few days, but nervously waited for the election results. Even as the results seemed to favor the president, they kept their focus on Ohio. Obama also held a traditional Election Day basketball game in the afternoon (“Mack”McLarty, p1).

Obama promised the best in his final term as the U.S. president, and he even claimed that the fierce encounter with Romney made him a better president. He vowed to return to the white house more focused and inspired than ever. He promised to stabilize the economy, and end the decades of war and campaign in his four year term. He also paid tributes to his opponent and invited him to partner with him in building the U.S. economy, a proposal that Romney had earlier suggest in his concession speech (“Mack”McLarty, p1).

Equally, Romney held his presidential concession speech in Boston, an hour before the president gave out his speech. He praised efforts made by his running mate Ryan, His wife Ann, and his children together with his supporters. He also congratulated president Obama on his re-election, and he encouraged the Americans to bipartisan co-operation (“Mack”McLarty, p1).

Reason for contesting for Presidency

Other than to defend his seat, Obama vied for re-election to finalize implementation of the projects he had started and promises he made to the Americans four years ago. His agenda for 2013-2017 was prioritize education and training, promote American-made energy, create on American processing boom, cut deficits where necessary by asking the wealthier to pay more tax. He also promised to end war, particularly on Afghanistan in order avail more finance to the nation-build America (Aljazeera, n.p).

Romney on his side, he was after reforms that included chains of reforms to budgetary, energy, tax, trade, labor and energy policies that would drive job creation. He also wanted to shun ObamaCare, implement tort reform and create a fence along the border with Mexico, armed with security guards. He also wanted to ban same-sex marriages, and cut non-defense discretionary spending by about 5%. On foreign policies, he expressed his desire to reverse defense cuts, and increase funding to the missile and Navy defense programs (Aljazeera, n.p). He also promised to authorize the department of energy to review domestic energy production aptitudes.

Impact of the Outcome on the US Economy

At last Obama won; however, the bitter campaign has since divided the Americans. Therefore, the president has a fragile command and a quick domestic to-do list. Consequently, there is latest rising world order from the euro zone crisis, the Arab spring and emerging US leadership, and Asia. The president need to come-up with effective fiscal and monetary policies to get more jobs to the Americans, given that over 3.6 million Americans have surviving without jobs (“Mack”McLarty, p1).

Conclusion

The campaign spending were historic and the most expensive ever since in the US history with Obama leading by over $30 million against Romney. There campaign structures differed significantly, and Obama’s campaign structure being favored as most efficiently organized than Romney. Romney only focused on television Ads while Obama balanced his Ads from Dashboards to television. Throughout the campaign, Romney mercilessly accused Obama of failing to heal the US economy, thereby throwing Obama on a defensive side. The candidates’ policies were conflicting, and in their manifesto they expressed different interests for running for the presidency. In defacing Obama, Romney gained more hope of clinching the presidency, sending Obama campaign team in fear of losing the election. Lastly, Obama earned f a second term in office, and the outcome for his re-election are yet to be seen.

Where Obama and Romney Stand on the Issues. Aljazeera 6 Nov. 2012: n. pag. <http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2012/09/20129308542614575.html>. 25 Nov. 2012.

Eamon Javers & Jessi Joseph. “Campaigns spent $30.33 per second for your vote”. Globalpost 5 Nov. 2012: n.p. http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/business/121105/election-record-spending .25 Nov. 2012.

F.E, Allen. Romney, the Great Manager? Not Nearly as Good as Obama, the Election Proved. Forbes 10 Nov. 2012: n.p < http://www.forbes.com/sites/frederickallen/2012/11/10/romney-the-great-manager-not-nearly-as-good-as-obama-the-election-proved/>. 25 Nov. 2012.

F.T “Mack”McLarty. A bipartisan Solution to the “Fiscal Cliff”. Washington Post 10 Nov. 2012: p1 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/fiscal-cliff-has-bipartisan-solution/2012/11/09/6e46845e-2aa0-11e2-96b6-8e6a7524553f_story.html> 25 Nov. 2012.